SL in talks with India to import two COVID-19 vaccines

COLOMBO (News1st): Sri Lanka is holding talks with India to import the Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, state minister for COVID-19 disease control Sudarshani Fernandopulle said. Attention has been drawn towards using the Blood Bank's cold storage facilities with a temperature of minus 70 degrees for the storage of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines. A final decision has not been reached on the type of vaccine that would be imported, Lalith Weeratunga, who heads the presidential task force on National Deployment and Vaccination Plan for COVID-19 said. He noted that vaccines against COVID-19 will not be imported without the approval of the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA). The NMRA told News1st that it had issued the relevant details on the importation of vaccines to the government, based on its request. Any private entity has not registered with the National Medicines Regulatory Authority for the importation of the COVID-19 vaccines.